CHAPTER XXVIII
ONWARD TOWARD THE FORBIDDEN CITY
The Master rang for full engine-power, and threw in all sixhelicopters with one swift gesture.
"Major," commanded he, as _Nissr's_ burned and wounded body began toquiver through all its mutilated fabric; "Major, man the machine-gunsagain. All stations! _Quick_!"
Bohannan departed. The droning of the helicopters rose to a shrillhum. The Master switched in the air-pressure system; and farunderneath, white fountains of spumy water leaped up about the floats,mingled with sand and mud all churned to frenzy under the burstingenergy of the compressed air released through thousands of tubules.
_Nissr_ trembled, hesitated, lifted a few inches, settled back oncemore.
Again the buzzer sounded. The noise of rapid feet became audibleabove, in the upper galleries. Ferrara called into the phone:
"It's a British destroyer, sir! She's just rounded the point, threemiles south. Signals up for us to surrender!"
"Machine-guns against naval ordnance!" gritted the Master savagely."Surrender?" He laughed with hot defiance.
The first shell flung a perfect tornado of brine into air, glistening;it ricochetted twice, and plunged into the dunes. A "dud," it failedto burst.
_Nissr_ rose again as the second shell hit fair in the hard clay ofthe wady, cascading earth and sand a hundred feet in air. Both reportsboomed in, rolling like thunder over the sea.
"Shoot and be damned to you!" cried the Master. _Nissr_ was risingnow, clearing herself from the water like a wounded sea-bird. Atremendous cascade of water sluiced from her hissing floats, swirlingin millions of sun-glinted jewels more brilliant even than Kaukab elDurri.
Higher she mounted, higher still. The destroyer was now driving in atfull speed, with black smoke streaming from four funnels, perfectlyindifferent to possible shoals, rocks or sand-bars along thisuncharted coast. Another shell screamed under the lower gallery andburst in a deluge of sand near one of the mooring-piles.
"Very poor shooting, my Captain," smiled Leclair, leaning far out theport window of the pilot-house. "But then, we can't blame the gunnersfor being a bit excited, trying to bag a bit of international gamelike this Legion."
"And beside," put in Alden coolly, "our shifting position makes usrather a poor target. Ah! That shell must have gone home!"
_Nissr_ quivered from nose to tail. A violent detonation flung echoesfrom sea and shore; and bits of splintered wreckage spun down past thewindows, to plunge into the still swirling, bubbling sea.
The Master made no answer, but rang for the propellers to be clutchedin. _Nissr_ obeyed their quickening whirl. Her altitude was alreadyfour hundred and fifty feet, as marked by the altimeter. Lamely shemoved ahead, sagging to starboard, badly scarred, ill-trimmed andawry, but still alive.
Her great black shadow, trailing behind her in the water, passed onto the beach, wrinkled itself up over the dunes and slid across thesand-drifts where little flutters of cloth, uncovered by the ghoulishjackals, showed from the burning stretch of tawny desert.
Flocks of vultures rose and soared away. Jackals and hyenas coweredand slunk to cover. The tumult of the guns and this vast, driftingmonster of the air had overcome even their greed for flesh.
Another shot, puffing white as wool from the bow-chaser of thedestroyer, screeched through the vultures, scattering them all ways,but made a clean miss of _Nissr_.
The air-liner gathered speed as the west wind got behind her, listedher, pushed her forward in its mighty hands. Swifter, ever swifter,her shadow slipped over dune and wady, over hillock and _nullah_, offaway toward the pellucidly clear-golden tints of the horizon beyondwhich lay the unknown.
Rrisa, at his gun-station, gnawed his fingers in rage and scorn ofthe pursuing Feringi, and cried: "Allah make it hard for you!_Laan'abuk!_" (Curses on your fathers!)
Old Sheik Abd el Rahman, close-locked in a cabin, quivered, not withfear, but with unspeakable grief and amazement past all telling. Tobe thus carried away through the heavens in the entrails of theunbelievers' flying dragon was a thing not to be believed. Heprostrated himself, with groans and cries to Allah. The Legionaries,from galleries and gun-stations waving derisive arms, raised shoutsand hurrahs.
Sweaty, spent, covered with grease and dirt, they cheered with leapinghearts.
Another shell, bursting in mid-air not fifty yards away, rocked_Nissr_, keeled her to port, and for a moment sent her staggeringdown. She righted, lifted, again gathered speed.
More and more wild became the shooting, as she zigzagged,rose, soared into something like her old-time stride. Behindher the sea drew back, the baffled destroyer dwindled, the harmlessshots crashed in.
Ahead of her the desert opened. Uncouth, lame, scarred by flame andshell, _Nissr_ spread her vast wings and--still the Eagle of the Sky,undaunted and unbeaten--roared into swift flight toward the waitingmysteries of the vacant abodes.
Mid-morning found _Nissr_ far from the coast, skimming along atfifteen hundred feet altitude over the Tarmanant region of the Sahara.The one shell from the destroyer that had struck her had done no morethan graze the tip of the starboard aileron, inflicting damage of nomaterial consequence. It could easily be repaired.
For the present, all danger of any interference from any civilizedpower seemed to be at an end. But the world had discovered that_Nissr_ and her crew had not yet been destroyed, and the Legionariesfelt they must prepare for all eventualities. The stowaway's rash actwas still big with possibilities of the most sinister import.
"This is probably just a temporary respite," said Bohannan, as he satwith the Master in the latter's cabin. The windows had been slidwide open, and the two men, leaning back in easy wicker chairs, wereenjoying the desert panorama each in his own way--Bohannan with acigar, the Master with a few leaves of the "flower of paradise."
Now once more clean and a little rested, they had again assumedsomething of their former aspect. "Captain Alden," and as many othersas could be spared from duty, were asleep. The Legion was alreadypulling itself together, though in depleted numbers. Discipline hadtautened again. Once more the sunshine of possible success had begunto slant in through a rift in the lowering clouds of disaster.
"It's still, perhaps, only a temporary respite," the major was saying."Of course, as long as we stay in the Sahara, we're safe enoughfrom molestation. It's trying to get out--that, and shortage ofpetrol--that constitute our problem now."
"Yes?" asked the chief, noncommittally. He peered out the window atthe vast, indigo horizons of the desert, curving off to northward intoa semicircle of burnished blue. Here, there, the etherial wonder of amirage painted the sandy sea. Vast distances opened on all sides;the sparkling air, brilliant with what seemed a kind of suspendedjewel-dust, made every object visible at an incredible remoteness. Thewonder of that morning sun and desert could not be put in words.
"Our troubles are merely postponed," the Celt continued, gloomily."The damage was done when that infernal destroyer sighted us. Just howthe alarm was given, and what brought the sea-wasp racking her enginesup the coast, we can't tell. But the cat's out of the bag, now, andwe've got to look out for an attack at any moment we try to leave thisregion."
"It's obvious my wireless messages about being wrecked at sea won'thave much weight now," the Master replied, analytically. "They wouldhave, though, if that slaving-dhow hadn't put in to investigate us. Ihave an idea that those _jallahs_ (slavers) must in some way have letthe news out at Bathurst, down in Gambia. That's the nearest Britishterritory."
"I wish they'd come within machine-gun fire!" growled the major,blowing smoke.
"Still, we've got lots of room to maneuver," the chief continued."We're heading due east now," with a glance at the wall-compass andlarge-scale chart of Northern Africa. "We're now between Mauretaniaand Southern Algeria, bound for Fezzan, the Libyan Desert, and Nubiaon the Red Sea. That is a clear reach of more than three thousandmiles of solid desert."
"Oh, we're all right, as long as we stay in the des
ert," Bohannanaffirmed. "But they'll be watching for us, all right, when we try toleave. It's all British territory to the east of us, from Alexandriadown to Cape Town. If we could only make our crossing of the Nile andthe Red Sea, at night--?"
"Impossible, Major. That's where we've got to restock petrol. If itcomes to a show-down, crippled as we are, we'll fight! Of course, Irealize that, fast as we fly, the wireless flies faster. We may haveto rely on our neutralizers again--"
"They're working?"
"Imperfectly, yes. They'll still help us, in 'civilized warfare.'And as for what will happen at Mecca, if the Faithful are indiscreetenough to offer any resistance--"
"Got something new, have you?"
"I think it may prove something of a novelty, Major. Time will tell,if Allah wills. Yes, I think we may have a little surprise for ourfriends, the Meccans."
The two fell silent again, watching the desert panorama roll backand away, beneath them. Afar, two or three little oases showedfeathery-tufted palms standing up like delicate carvings against theremote purple spaces or against the tawny, seamed desolation thatburned as with raw colors of fires primeval. Here, there, patches ofstunted tamarisk bushes were visible. A moving line of dust showedwhere a distant caravan was plodding eastward over the sparklingcrystals of an ancient salt sea-bottom. A drift of low-hangingwood-smoke, very far away, betrayed the presence of a camp of the AhlBayt, the People of the Black Tents.
The buzzer of the Master's phone broke the silence between the twomen, a silence undertoned by the throb and hum of the now effectivelyoperating engines.
"Well, what is it?" the Master queried.
"Promising oasis, _mon capitaine_," came the voice of Leclair from theupper starboard gallery. "Through my glass I can make out extensivedate-palm groves, pomegranate orchards, and gardens. There must beplenty of water there. We should take water, eh?"
"Right!" the Master answered. He got up and turned to Bohannan.
"Major," commanded he, "have Simonds and a crew of six stand by, inthe lower gallery, to descend in the nacelle. Rrisa is to go. Theywill need him, to interpret. Give them a few of the trinkets from thatassortment we brought for barter, and a little of our Arabic money."
"Yes, sir. But you know only two of the detachable tanks are left."
"Two will suffice. Have them both lowered, together with theelectric-drive pump. Don't annoy me with petty details. You are incharge of this job now. Attend to it!"
He passed into the pilot-house, leaned at the window and with hisglasses inspected the deep green patch, dark as the profoundest sea,that marked the oasis. A little blind village nestled there, withmud-brick huts, a watch-tower and a tiny minaret; date-grounds andfields of corn, melons, and other vegetables spread a green fringeamong the groves.